Joshua
Connor has the Australian version of The Shine. The grizzled farmer senses certain
things, like where to drill for water. If he can only get to the blood-soaked
beaches of Gallipoli, he is sure he can find the remains of his three sons who
died in combat there. That is something the British authorities are not so
eager to facilitate in Russell Crowe’s The
Water Diviner (trailer
here),
which opens today in New York.
All
of three of Connor’s sons enlisted in the ANZACs and all three presumably
perished at Gallipoli. When the bitter news drives their mother to her grave,
the salt-of-the-earth Connor promises his late wife he will find their sons and
bring them home to her. However, Gallipoli is not exactly a tourist attraction
in 1919. The British military consul flatly refuses him access to the
prohibited beaches. Of course, he is not about to be dissuaded after such a
long and arduous journey.
Bribing
a fisherman, Connor makes his to the fateful beaches, where a combined team of
British and Turkish military personnel are working to identify and properly
bury as many fallen combatants as possible. Although Lt. Col. Cyril Hughes is a
little put off by Connor’s sudden appearance, his Turkish counterpart, Maj.
Hasan convinces him to assist Connor’s search. Sure enough, the farmer quickly
finds his sons, but only two of them. Through a little bureaucratic digging,
Hasan discovers the eldest Connor brother might have been taken captive as a
POW.
Suddenly,
Connor has a glimmer of hope and a knotty mystery to entangle. The British are
even more determined to send him packing, but Connor finds unlikely allies in
Hasan and his veteran aide-de-camp, Sgt. Jemal. As Turkish nationalists loyal
to Ataturk, they are more concerned with the Greek occupation of Smyrna. The
fact that Hasan commanded Turkish troops at Gallipoli also makes their
relationship somewhat awkward, but the slowly develop a degree of mutual respect.
Much to his surprise, Connor also finds himself acting as a surrogate father
for Orhan the urchin-like son of Ayshe, the widowed proprietor of the hotel he
is staying at.
In
Australia, Gallipoli is still the source of strong national emotion, so this
was a somewhat bold choice for Crowe’s feature directorial debut. Presumably,
his countrymen are okay with it, since Diviner
tied with The Babadook for best
picture Australian Academy Awards. Frankly, Crowe’s film should have had the
award all to itself or shared it with the Spierig Brothers’ Predestination. Crowe uses an epic story
to tell an acutely personal story—and quite effectively so.
Screenwriters
Andrew Anastasios and Andrew Knight accurately reference all the macro forces
roiling the Ottoman Empire’s final days, but they keep a lot of details hazy,
such as Ataturk’s commitment to secularism. These days, Turkey could use a
reminder on that score. Nevertheless, it is reasonable for the film to reflect Connor’s
naïve confusion with Turkish mores and politics.
As
his own lead, Crowe is perfectly on-key as Connor, the quietly grieving father.
It is the sort of understated performance that pays far greater dividends than overindulgence,
over-the-top Meryl Streepian wailing and garment-rending. The French-Ukrainian
Olga Kurylenko also puts the “hot” in hotelier as Ayshe, developing some
better-than-you-expect chemistry with Crowe. However, it is Yilmaz Erdoğan who really
puts a stamp on the film, oozing integrity while avoiding cliché as the hard
but compassionate Maj. Hasan.
